Out of memory in matlab32 in ubuntu32

I run a code in 32bit matlab in ubuntu 11.10 386, it a 32bit system, but I face the "Out of memory" problem.

When I debug in step,

"free -m" in terminal:

total  used    free   shared  buffers   cached

2985   1708    1277   0       121       556

I input "A = eye(14898)" in matlab, it is ok, and I input "free -m" again in terminal

total  used    free   shared  buffers   cached

2985   1768    1217   0       121       556

I delete A in matlab, and input "A = eye(14899)", then error out of memory.

What does it mean? I have 1217m free memory, but I cannot allocat bigger than past just 1? How can I fixed it， I need to run "A = eye(size(superx,1)", the size(superx,1)= 17391

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

eye(14898) is about 1.65 gigabytes. Your target, eye(17391) would be just over 2 1/4 gigabytes.

1/2 to 1 Gb of your memory is being used for devices. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=855511 In particular, memory for your video card reduces the amount available for the rest of your processes.

[Daniel Shub]

I think the memory needs to be continuous also.